Talk:AMERICA/@comment-108.194.25.40-20151203101652/@comment-108.194.25.40-20151205015415
Both of you made a lot of good points that I'll reply to later (it's a shame that there doesn't seem to be a way to quote parts of other posts), but one thing I think I should clarify is that when I say "right-wing" I'm actually referring to what is more of a centrist viewpoint in current Japan. I don't think that the writer(s) believe that Japan deserved to win WW2 and should colonize all the Far East or anything. I just think that they have the more mainstream view that ignores (either willingly or due to ignorance) how awful Imperial Japan was and has a very favorable view of Japan relative to other countries (this probably applies to a huge number of people in all countries, not just Japan). Like one of you mentioned, it would be business suicide to focus on the rape of Nanking or something (though I don't think this excuses the downright Jesus-like portrayal of royalty in Alternative). It's basically like the multitude of Hollywood movies that portray America as a good guy and some other country(ies) as the enemy; even if they show bad Americans and good members of the enemy country, it's still kind of obvious that they're pro-American and patriotic (if not downright jingoistic). So when I say that the writer(s) are right-wing nationalistic, I mean it in pretty much the same way that most manga/anime that remotely touch upon politics also are. It just bothers me more in this case because of how much I enjoy the games otherwise. Anyways, I think it actually speaks to the quality of the game that this bothered me so much in the first place and warranted such a discussion. Oh, I also want to quickly address the point about what a writer writes reflecting their own personal views. There's some nuance here; like you said, writing Man in the High Castle doesn't make Philip K. Dick a Nazi sympathizer. But it also doesn't portray the Axis powers as being morally superior to the defeated Allies, much less being good in general. If it involved the Axis Powers creating some utopia while there existed Allied remnants who were all evil fascists, then someone would be entirely correct to think "whoa, the guy who wrote this has some questionable political views." While a grey area exists for satirical works, it can definitely be obvious when a writer is trying to, either directly or indirectly, advocate for their own political views in a work. Like, unless clearly intended as satire, you can be pretty certain that a work that involves Jewish people backstabbing a more or less virtuous government is written by someone with antisemitic beliefs. When you choose to use real world individuals/groups/political entities in a work of art, you can't really escape from making some sort of political statement in the process. You can't just say "Yeah, sure, black people may be dumb and evil in my story, but that's just because it's fiction!"